MP child porn charges sent to mags court

A South Australian MP is to face a second hearing on whether he should be tried on child pornography charges, after three judges set aside his committal order.

The MP's name was revealed and reported widely after a magistrate last September ordered him to face a District Court trial.

But he sought a judicial review of the decision in the full court of the Supreme Court, which on Wednesday set aside the committal and sent the case back to the Adelaide magistrates court for a new hearing.

Under South Australian law, the MP's identity must again be suppressed because the case is back before the magistrates court and involves a sexual allegation.

The MP has pleaded not guilty to five aggravated counts of taking steps to obtain child pornography and one aggravated count of obtaining child pornography.

It's alleged the offences occurred at his home in suburban Adelaide between August 2010 and April 2011.

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Chief Justice Chris Kourakis, sitting with Justices Tom Gray and Ann Vanstone, said the MP had been denied "procedural fairness" in the magistrates court.

His lawyers' arguments had centred on the wording of the law relating to an aggravated offence, contending that the relevant age of the child was their age at the time the image was accessed.

They also submitted there was no identifiable victim in the "taking a step" offences, so there could be no proof of age of the person.

But Justice Kourakis ruled that the relevant age was the age of the child as he or she is depicted in the pornography, not the age the child happened to be by the time the images were viewed.

He also rejected the argument related to the "taking a step" charges.

But the court concluded that the matter should be sent back to the magistrates court as the MP had not been given an opportunity to make submissions about the strength of the crown case in relation to the age of the alleged victims.